Main menu

You are here

Freelance success tips

If you've noticed my recent blogging silence, and if you know what I've written about purposeful porpoising, you may have guessed correctly that I've been underwater again.

Freelancing while solo parenting doesn't always leave time for business development. If you've tried to do both, you know that I mean. But if you play your cards right, you can have a steady flow of work even with minimal marketing.

A few weeks ago I repeated a tired lament to a longtime colleague: I am so busy providing the same services to the same group of clients in the same sector that it's tough to position myself to offer new services to new clients in new sectors.

"You're porpoising," she said. "You gotta stop doing that."

I'd never heard of porpoising. My colleague explained: "You disappear underwater for weeks on end working hard for your clients, and then when you come up for air, you realize you haven't generated any leads, and there's no work."

When you are developing new directions in your business, and you need to invest a lot of nonbillable time, please be considerate to the people who are supporting you through the transition—whether they are providing financial support, doing the lion's share of the homemaking, or waiting to take vacations or enjoy other good and healthy things that cost money.

A freelance portfolio is like an investment portfolio: diversification is your best protection against financial disaster.

It stands to reason that a recession-proof business will have multiple clients. If you can offer multiple services or work in multiple sectors, even better. But a less obvious kind of diversification is the most important of all: diversification in project frequency.

People learn how we make a living, and they think they'd like to earn money in their jammies too. So they ask us if they can pick our brains. Or they want us to refer work to them because they are really good at noticing typos on restaurant menus.

Hey, we're busy! We haven't got time for all that brain-picking! And we're not going to refer work because someone finds mistakes on menus.

But here's the thing. I made a strong start in freelancing because colleagues let me pick their brains and referred work to me.